Mantis 21 (Summer 2023)
Translations
Murilo Mendes
translated from Portuguese by Baz Martin Gibbons
O Homem e a Água
As mãos têm hélice, tempestade e bússola.
Os pés guardam navios
Aparelham para o Oriente
O olho tem peixes,
A boca, recifes de coral;
Os ouvidos têm noites polos e lamento de ondas.
A vida é muito marítima.
Man and Water
Hands of propellers, storm and compass.
Feet keep ships
Shipshape for the East
The eye has fish,
The mouth its coral reefs;
Ears of nights, poles, and wailing waves.
Life is exceedingly maritime.
A Liberdade
Um buquê de nuvens:
O braço duma constelação
Surge entre as rendas do céu.
O espaço transforma-se a meu gosto,
É um navio, uma ópera, uma usina,
Ou então a remota Persépolis.
Admiro a ordem da anarquia eterna,
A nobreza dos elementos
E a grande castidade da Poesia.
Dormir no mar! Dormir nas galeras antigas!
Sem o grito dos náufragos,
Sem os mortos pelos submarinos.
Liberty
A bouquet of clouds:
The arm of a constellation
pops up among heavenly lace.
Space transforms to my whim,
it’s a ship, an opera, a power plant,
or far off Persepolis.
I admire the order of eternal anarchy,
the nobility of the elements
and the grand chastity of Poetry.
To sleep at sea! To sleep in ancient galleys!
Without the cry of castaways,
without those drowned by submarines.
MURILO MENDES was born in Juiz de Fora, Brazil in 1901. In 1930 Mendes published his first collection, Poemas: 1925—1929. Mário de Andrade—the father of Brazilian modernism—celebrated the collection stating it was “historically the most important book of the year.” In the 1950s, Mendes emigrated to Europe meeting surrealists André Breton, Franics Picabia, René Magritte et al. Surrealism was, and would remain, a significant feature of Mendes’ mature work. Mendes settled for a time in Rome, teaching Brazilian literature, then retired to Lisbon where he died in 1975 two years after completing his final collection, Retratos-relâmpago.
BAZ MARTIN GIBBONS is author of Beyond the Screenplay and Cinema and Its Discontents (MacFarland). His essays on film have been published in Directory of World Cinema and World Film Locations published by Intellect Ltd. (UK) and University of Chicago Press (USA). His most recent publications include a chapter from his memoir I Sing the Mind Electric (Watershed Review) and translations of Brazilian poets Augusto dos Anjos and Murilo Mendes in POETRY, Lunch Ticket, The Antonym, and elsewhere. He currently divides his time between Brazil and England. He is the recipient of the 2023 Gabo Prize for Literary Translation.